Oz Returns
by Kaija
Summary: This is a story about what would happen if Oz came back after Willow and Tara broke up after "Tabula Rasa".
1. Oz Returns

Author's note: Hey, is anyone else but me wondering where the HELL all of the Oz fics are? Well I think it's time to start bringing Oz back like everyone wants the show to! He might be off the show, but he can still be in fics! Hope you like this one. It's the Oz revolution! lol This is chapter one, I don't know when chapter two's coming, you'll just have to keep checking.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.   
  
  
  
  
I wonder if she cut her hair, Oz thought. Will she look the same? Will she be totally different? Is she still with Tara? I know I can't be with her, but I need to see her. He couldn't help asking these questions in his mind as he pulled in to the driveway of the Summers house. He turned off the car engine and exhaled deeply. He was really nervous. Calm down Oz, he thought, Oh great, now I'm giving myself pep talks. He finally mustered the courage to get out of the van. He walked through the grass and up the steps to the doorway.   
  
"Looks like it's now or never" he whispered to himself as he reached over to knock on the door. He knocked once, waiting for someone to answer the door. No one came. Oh jeez, he thought, what if Buffy doesn't even live here anymore? He knocked again, louder this time.   
  
"Coming!" yelled a voice from inside.   
  
A few minutes later the door opened. It was Dawn.  
  
"Oz!" she yelled, wrapping her arms around his neck.  
  
"Hey Dawn," he said hugging her slightly. "Is anybody around? Willow, Buffy, Xander, Giles?"  
  
"Umm... No one's here right now, but you could check the magick shop, Giles owns it. He and Anya will be there, I don't know about anyone else" she said, releasing him.   
  
"Okay, I'll do that. Wanna come?"  
  
"Sure" she said, "I usually do my homework there, but I forgot one of my books here."  
  
"Alright, hop in."  
  
***************  
  
The bell on the door chimed as Oz and Dawn walked into the magic shop. Anya was helping a customer (poor customer) and Giles was cleaning his glasses. Giles cleaning his glasses, Oz thought, now there's something you don't see every five seconds. It was annoying, yet somehow comforting. It brought back so many memories. Giles suddenly looked up.  
  
"Oz" he said.  
  
"Yep"  
  
"Nice to see you. Did you find....?" he let the word trail off, Oz knew what he was asking.  
  
"Yeah potion of some sort. Smelled awful. Seems to have done the trick."  
  
"Yes, quite."  
  
"Is Buffy here?" he asked.  
  
"She's er.. training, right through that door."  
  
"Right"  
  
Oz walked through the door to find Buffy doing some major damage to a punching bag. She turned and looked at him and was so surprized to see him that as she threw a punch, she missed the punching bag and fell on the floor. Oz ran over and helped her up.   
  
"See?" he said jokingly,"sometimes the little guys are tougher than they look."  
  
"Oz" she said, still laughing. "what are you doing here? You found a cure?"  
  
"Yeah. Potion."  
  
"Have you seen Willow yet?"  
  
"She's at class" he said.  
  
"oh.... there's something I have to tell you. She and Tara... they... broke up. Willow's been going a little overboard on the magick and lied to Tara about it."  
  
"Wow. Willow? She's not the same is she?"  
  
"In some ways she is... in others... not so much. She's becoming a danger. Not only to herself but to everyone else. She almost got Dawn killed a couple of nights ago."  
  
"Wow. I didn't pick the greatest time to come back, did I?"  
  
"No, no... I'm sure she'll be glad to see you. Maybe you're just what she needs..."  
  
"I hope so." he answered.  
  
Buffy looked at the clock on the wall.  
  
"Well, I guess that's enough training for today. Listen, do you need a place to stay? I'm sure I can make up the couch for you. Not the most comfortable spot, but at least it's somewhere."  
  
"Actually, that would be great."  
  
"Great"  
  
*awkward silence*  
  
"Willow should be here any-"  
  
Just then, Willow came bursting through the door.  
  
"Buffy, Giles said...." she let the words trail off as she saw Oz. "Oz..."  
  
"Willow, look, we need to talk."  
  
"Yeah"  
  
"Let's go for a ride, the van's outside."  
  
Willow and Oz walked throught the magick shop to get outside, ignoring the stares of Giles, Anya, Dawn, and Xander. They got outside and got into the van. They just sat in the seats, not even looking at eachother.  
  
"So..."  
  
"You found it?" Willow interrupted. "The cure?"  
  
"Yeah"  
  
"Why did you come back? I mean, me and Tara..."  
  
"I don't know. I had to see you. Even if it meant we just had to be friends. Even if I had to see you two together. I just wasn't home anywhere. Sunnydale's my home. You're my home."  
  
"Well, I should probably tell you... Tara and I..."  
  
"Broke up" he finished for her. "Buffy told me."  
  
"I've missed you so much." she said.  
  
"I've missed you too"  
  
Suddenly, completely on instinct, they kissed. Slow at first, and then it became more passionate.  
  
"So does this mean you'd still?" he asked.  
  
"Well, I'd still if, you'd still."  
  
"Oh I'd still. I'd very still."  
  
"Agreed. No biting though."  
  
"Not a problem anymore." 


	2. The Kiss

Author's Note: Okay this is the second chapter, hope you like it. I'm gonna write some funnier stories, I just got done reading the "Make your own B/S fic" by Shellybob (It's on my favorites list) and it was so funny, it inspired me! Have fun reading this one!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
They must have been out there an hour or two, because when they looked up, the magick shop was closed and everyone was gone. They stayed in the car. Then they began kissing again. Suddenly, they heard a girls voice screaming right outside the car. They reluctantly pulled away from eachother to see Tara standing there. She was just staring at them like a deer caught in headlights. Willow opened the door and ran out to talk to Tara, but Tara had already taken off running. Willow looked at Oz.  
  
"We need to find her. We have to tell her something. Let's follow her" Willow said as she climbed back into the van. Oz turned on the ignition and started heading in the direction that Tara had been running in. Wow she's fast, Oz thought. She was nowhere in sight.   
  
"She probably went to Buffy's" Willow said,"The place she's been staying is in the other direction."  
  
"Okay"  
  
They pulled into Buffy's driveway and walked up the steps. Willow pulled out her keys and struggled to get the right key into the lock.   
  
"Ya know, if there was a vampire out here right now, we'd be pretty screwed."  
  
Willow didn't laugh. She just looked at him. Finally she got the right key into the lock and opened the door. Buffy and Dawn were on the couch watching tv.   
  
"Did Tara come over here?" Willow asked them.  
  
"Ya she's in your room" Dawn answered,"She said she forgot something."  
  
Willow ran up the stairs and into her room. Oz knew to stay downstairs. She found Tara lying on the bed, crying.   
  
"Tara, I"  
  
"No, it's okay, I understand. He was your first love. It makes sense."  
  
"Tara, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I was hurt from breaking up. YOu did make it pretty clear that we broke up. I didn't think there was any hope of us getting back together. It's just... well, Oz came back today. I missed him so much. I love you, too, Tara. I just... I don't know. I don't know what to do."  
  
Willow sat next to Tara on the bed and looked at her as they talked.  
  
"I don't know what to do, Tara, I just don't" Willow said, also starting to cry.  
  
They both sat there, looking at eachother. They started to kiss. The door was open.   
  
****************  
  
Oz sat down on the couch next to Buffy and Dawn.   
  
"Hey"  
  
"Hey" they answered.  
  
*awkward silence*  
  
"Still the same old laconic Oz" Buffy said.  
  
"Yep"  
  
*silence*  
  
"Oh, hey, uh.. bathroom?" Oz said.  
  
"Up the stairs second door on the right" Dawn answered.  
  
"Thanks"  
  
Oz headed up the stairs and looked for the bathroom. Alright, he thought, she said second door on the left, didn't she? He looked at the door. It was already open so he peeked inside to see if it was the bathroom. Willow and Tara were sitting on the bed kissing. Definately not the bathroom, Oz thought. His entire body turned to jello. He made his way to the bathroom and went back downstairs. He didn't sit down this time.   
  
"I'm uh... gonna go."  
  
"What's wrong Oz? You look like something just gave you the wiggins" Buffy said. "I have to patrol, wanna come with? I don't know what just happened, but you look like you could use some action."  
  
"Uh... sure. I just have to get out of here."  
  
Buffy ran up to her room to get some supplies. He didn't dare follow her. He didn't want to see Willow and Tara together like that again. Buffy quickly came back down with a weird expression on her face. She saw, Oz thought. He was pretty sure by the look on her face that she saw Willow and Tara.   
  
"Let's go" she said, trying to hide it.  
  
Once they got outside they headed for the graveyard. Buffy still used the same route for patrolling as she did before Oz left.   
  
"So I guess you saw, huh?" he asked.  
  
"Uh.. yeah. I'm so sorry, Oz"  
  
"Nah, It's cool. I should have expected it. I should have known."  
  
******************  
  
Willow heard the door slam. She and Tara stopped kissing. What am I doing, she thought.   
  
"Oz..."   
  
She ran downstairs. Buffy and Oz were gone.  
  
"Oz?" she said to Dawn.  
  
"Patrolling with Buffy. I don't know what was wrong, but he looked pretty weirded out when he came back downstairs from going to the bathroom."  
  
"He was upstairs!?" Willow said half yelling half asking.  
  
"Yeah... so?"  
  
"Oh my god I have to find them"  
  
Willow ran out the door but Buffy and Oz were long gone. The only thing she could do was wait until they got back. Just then, Tara came out of the house and began to walk home. Willow wanted to stop her, but she didn't. She couldn't do that to her. Not to Tara. She wanted Oz. They could finally be together.   
  
"If he even speaks to me again" Willow whispered to herself as she walked up the steps to go inside. She went upstairs and went strait to her room. A spell, she thought. I can do a spell to make Oz forget. She pulled out the same flower that she had used to do the spell on Tara and did the spell. "Forget" she said. She didn't know where Oz was so she ground the flower into a thin powder and stuck it out her window. She did another spell to make the powder go to Oz and watched as it was carried off by the wind. 


	3. The Spell

Author's note: Sorry this took a while to put up. I had a little writing block for a while. Hope you like this!  
  
  
"Got it" Oz said as he held a vampire's arms behind it's back so Buffy could stake it. Buffy ran up and plunged the stake into the vampire's chest. Oz fell backwards and onto the ground as the vampire exploded into a cloud of dust. Buffy extended her hand to help him up.  
  
"Wow you really did great at holding that thing. You had it for a while."  
  
"Well..." Oz replied modestly. All of a sudden he got a gap in his memory. He couldn't remember how he had gotten here with Buffy. One minute he was walking up the stairs to go to the bathroom in Buffy's house, the next, he was out here.  
  
"What? How did we get out here? I was going up to the bathroom and.."  
  
"Woah" Buffy said, sounding worried "Did you hit your head?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, I don't know. One minute I was in your house, trying to find the bathroom and the next I was out here."  
  
"Willow..." Buffy said realizing that Willow had done a spell to make Oz forget what had happened."We have to go back to the house. We have to talkt to Willow. She did a spell to make you forget something."  
  
"What did she want me to forget? Why would she do that?"  
  
"Uh.... you'll find out..." Buffy replied as they headed back tward her house.  
  
*************  
  
"Where's Willow?" Buffy asked Dawn as she walked into her house with Oz.  
  
"Out looking for you two. She said something about talking to Oz." Dawn answered.  
  
Buffy looked at Oz and he nodded. They headed back out and started going back over Buffy's patrol route. As they were walking through one of Sunnydale's many graveyards, they heard a scream coming from behind some bushed nearby.  
  
"Willow" Oz said as he ran tward the bushes the scream had come from. There he found a vampire wrestling Willow to the ground, about to bite her. Oz leaped onto the vampire and desperately tried to get it off of Willow. Then, Buffy jumped in, too, and they finally managed to stake the vampire.  
  
"Are you okay?" Oz asked them both.  
  
"Yeah" Willow said. "That was close."  
  
"Will, we need to talk to you" Buffy said with a stern voice. "Did you do a spell on Oz?"  
  
"Um.. well, uh.. not exactly" Willow started.  
  
"Willow" Buffy said with a half glare.  
  
"Yeah" Willow answered in a guilty voice.  
  
"I think you guys need to talk" Buffy said, and left to finish her patrol.  
  
"Oz, I-"  
  
"Why?" Oz interrupted. "Why did you do it? What happened?"  
  
"I uh... Tara and I... we kissed."  
  
"Willow... I thought--" Oz started. "I thought you two were over. I thought you wanted to be with me."  
  
"I do. I do want to be with you. I don't know what happened with Tara, but it's over now, she knows it, and I know it."  
  
"That's just the thing. You may know it, and she may know it. But I... I don't." Oz said, beginning to walk away.  
  
"Oz wait" Willow said, trying to stop him.  
  
"No" Oz said pulling away from her. "I need to think. Just let me go. I'll see you tomorrow, maybe."  
  
"Alright" Willow said trying to hide her tears, but not doing a very good job.   
  
Willow didn't even move as Oz left. She just watched him go. Once he was out of sight she fell onto her knees and just cried. 


	4. The Wolf

Author's note: Sorry this took so long. I didn't really have a plan for this story from the beginning so I didn't really know what I wanted to do.  
  
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own anything.  
  
  
Willow couldn't go back home. She needed some time to think about what she had done. How coud she have done that? Hadn't she learned her lesson when Tara broke up with her? No. Apparently she hadn't. Magic was so much easier than dealing with things. It was an escape from the pain and struggle of life on the hellmouth, or anywhere for that matter. But Oz... his face. His face just kept flashing into his head. He looked so sad and disappointed in her. She wasn't used to that. Other than recently, she had never really been a disappointment to anyone. It wasn't easy. Just then, a hand grabbed onto Willow's neck and pulled her away from the spot she was standing. She tried to look and whoever or whatever had a hold of her but she couldn't see. They were taking her somewhere. MOre like dragging her, but it didn't really make a difference at this point. Then she started to scream. Seconds after she started screaming she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, and then everything went black and she fell away from the world.  
  
*****************  
Buffy continued on her patrol and left Oz and Willow to work things out. It was the best thing to do. She couldn't beleive what Willow had done. Willow promised that she wouldn't do magic. She needs help. Then a vampire jumped out from behind a grave and Buffy casually stepped up to him and staked him. Wow. That was easy, she thought as the vampire exploded into a pile of dust. She shrugged it off and continued walking and thinking about Willow. This was the first time that Willow had been out of control since Buffy met her. As she was thinking, Buffy thought she heard a scream, so she stopped and listened for another. There wasn't another scream so she figured she must have just thought she heard it since she was thinking about other things. So she shrugged it off just like she did with the easy-to-stake vampire.   
  
  
******************  
  
When Willow woke up she was in a cave. She could see the wall that she was lying next to. She tried to sit up and stopped when she felt the pain in the back of her head. Then she remembered. She was kidnapped. Whoever or whatever had taken her had hit her in the back of the head to knock her out. She heard voices coming twards her.   
  
"So, boss" said one voice. "Do you think she'll be okay for the sacrafice?"  
  
They sounded human, probably vampires...  
  
"She'll do" said the other, deeper voice. "Have you dressed her in the sacraficial garments?"  
  
"Yes" replied the first voice.  
  
Willow looked down at her clothes. She was dressed in what looked like some kind of medeival dress. Sort of like the one that Glory dressed Dawn in, but in a idfferent color and design. Suddenly she was being dragged somewhere. Whoever was dragging her was making no effort to avoid the bumps.   
  
"You want her right here?" said the voice of the person/demon that was dragging her.  
  
"That will do" said the other voice.  
  
Willow was finally able to sit up, she found herself sitting on the floor of the cave next to a large gap that looked like some kind of a bottomless pit. She saw a man pouring some kind of herbs into the pit and mumbling a spell. Willow suddenly remembered that there was some holy water in the pocket of her pants. She scanned the room for her clothes and saw them in a small pile across the room. She mumbled a spell to float the holy water to her. She made sure to let the vampire see. He wasn't frightened at all. He just continued with his spell. She used the spell to open the cap and pour it all over him. It didn't do anything.  
  
"How..?"   
  
"How what?" laughed the man. "What did you think? Did you think we were vampires or something?"  
  
"YOu're HUMAN?" Willow said with a look of disgust.   
  
"Doesn't really matter now" he said as two pairs of arms lifted Willow over the pit. She tried to struggle free, but they were too strong. JUst as they were about to let her go there was a howl at the entrance of the cave. It began attacking the men until none of them were left standing. Then he turned twards Willow. She was terrified. Last time, he almost killed her. He slowly walked tward her and layed down at her feet. Then, he turned back into Oz.  
  
"Oz!" Willow said as she helped him up.   
  
"Willow" he said weakly. He had been hurt during the brawl. There was a long, deep cut down his arm.  
  
"I'll take you home" Willow said. Then, Oz blacked out.  
  
*************  
  
Oz woke up the next morining in Willow's bed. Willow was asleep on a chair at the end of the bed. She hadn't even changed out of the dress that the men had put her in. He looked down at his arm and saw that she had bandaged it. He started to get out of bed as quietly as he could, but he still woke Willow up. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. She quickly got up, walked over to him and threw her arms around him.   
  
"Oz" she said as she hugged him. They shared a quick kiss. "How's your arm?"  
  
"Suddenly painless"  
  
They both laughed remembering when they had had that conversation the first time after Oz took a bullet in the arm for Willow.   
  
"Does this mean you forgive me?" Willow asked.  
  
Oz stepped up to her and they started kissing passionately.  
  
  
---The End---  
  
Please Review! Thanks! 


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